Gene Hecht
|latest = }} Gene Hecht is a criminal and one of the two men responsible for the murders of Jay and Steven Watson. History In 1986, Gene took part in multiple armed robberies of ATMs with his schoolmate Bill Jones. On February 15, 1986, wearing fake beards, a hat and sunglasses, Gene and Bill rob an ATM where Jay and Steven Watson stop on their way back from a King's hockey game, likely mistiming the robbery a little as the men have not yet drawn money from the ATM. After Steven proves to have no bank card, Bill shoots him twice in the chest, apparently not believing his claims and Gene picks up Jay's dropped bank card. The two force Jay to draw all of the money from his bank account before Gene wipes off their fingerprints and Bill kills Jay. The two only escape with sixty dollars and Jay's Swiss Army watch which Gene takes for himself. The next day, Gene's girlfriend Jennifer Edwards sees Gene wearing a Swiss Army watch that he never had on before. Having learned about the murders on the news and the theft of a Swiss Army watch as part of it, Jennifer grows suspicious of Gene and asks him about the watch. Enraged, Gene pulls Jennifer across the table by her hair and threatens her life if she ever asks where he got anything again. Though the police thoroughly investigate the murders, they are unable to solve them and Gene continues his criminal lifestyle while Bill gets out to have a family and regular job. Gene is sent to jail several times for his crimes, including an armed robbery at an ATM occurring about three miles from where he and Bill robbed and killed the Watson brothers. Eventually, after three felony convictions, Gene is automatically given a life sentence in Kern Valley State Prison in around 1988. Gene spends the next twenty-eight years in the same prison serving his life sentence. Thirty years after the murders, in 2016, Jay's son Buzz Watson, now a Reserve Officer with the LAPD, decides to reopen the investigation into the murders in order to finally achieve his lifelong dream and get justice for his father and uncle. The primary clue Buzz focuses on is a partial fingerprint left by Gene on Jay's bank card. However, the partial is not nearly enough for an identification and on the advice of Lieutenant Louie Provenza, Buzz begins looking into all of the other ATM robberies in the four months surrounding the murder in a thirty mile radius as Provenza recognizes from the ATM security video that the killers are likely not amateurs. Buzz succeeds in finding a second partial on another ATM robbery, but it only brings him up to seven points of identification which is not enough to legally identify a suspect. Buzz eventually decides to use it to identify a witness instead and after checking on everyone else who left fingerprints around the ATM, runs the partials through a fingerprint projection software that identifies the partials as belonging to Gene. However, in order to prevent Gene from potentially alerting his accomplice, Buzz files for a removal order to transfer Gene into isolation at the PAB to be held until he can be interrogated and his accomplice caught. Gene is brought to Major Crimes during the investigation into the murder of Ava Jarvis where he questions why he has been brought there in the first place. Due to their more pressing need to question Henry Colson, Gene is sent to the visitor's conference center until they are ready to question him. Later, Gene is brought into interrogation by Buzz and Provenza and demands to know why he has been brought in. Provenza and Buzz explain to Gene how his fingerprints were found on two ATMs that were robbed by men with baseball caps and fake beards in 1986. As they can only question Gene as a witness due to the way his fingerprints were used to identify him, Buzz asks Gene if he witnessed anything since he was in the vicinity. However, Gene reminds them that the statute of limitations ran out on 1986 robberies years before, causing Provenza to tell Gene that there is no statute of limitations on murder and to demand his location at the time of the robbery-homicide. Gene claims that he was with his girlfriend at the time, but that he can't remember the name of the girl. Buzz calls out Gene as a liar, telling him that Gene's fingerprints match up exactly to a partial found on a bank card one of the victims dropped during the assault. When Buzz accuses Gene of picking the card up and putting it in the ATM, Gene challenges him to prove when the fingerprint was put on the card before telling them to just spell out what they want from him. Provenza asks for the name of his accomplice in the robbery and murders, but Gene scoffs at the idea, stating that he is already serving a life sentence and they are welcome to add another one to it as it doesn't matter at all to him. Buzz threatens to transfer Gene to Pelican Bay which will destroy the life Gene has built for himself in Kern Valley over nearly thirty years in prison, a threat that finally catches his attention. Buzz demands that Gene either give him the name of his accomplice that actually committed the murders or the girlfriend that can verify Gene's alibi. Gene identifies Jennifer Edwards as his girlfriend at the time and briefly invokes his rights until Buzz threatens to have Gene's lawyer meet him in Pelican Bay. Buzz refuses to allow Gene a phone call, asking who he'd call if he could use a phone and threatening that if Gene is lying, he will spend the rest of his life amongst the most dangerous prisoners in the American penal system. Buzz then has Gene sent back into isolation while he checks out the alibi. Days later, Gene is brought back to Major Crimes after Buzz finds Jennifer and gets her statement. Buzz reveals to Gene that he found Jennifer and she denied being with Gene during the ATM robbery and double homicide Gene's fingerprints linked him to. When Gene refuses to believe it, Provenza reads from Jennifer's statement about how Gene had threatened her life when she asked about his new Swiss Army watch and shows him the statement. Buzz assures Gene that he doesn't have to worry about domestic violence charges as the statute of limitations has long since expired on them. However, Jennifer's statement about combined with the partials on the bank card and Jennifer denying Gene's alibi bodes bad for Gene as two murders could put him on death row awaiting execution. Gene is shocked with the threat of death row and Buzz admits that while Gene wasn't the shooter but his partner, he is willing to settle for Gene if he can't find the partner. Gene tries to lie that he bought the watch at Nordstrom's, but Buzz angrily tells Gene that Swiss Army watches were not sold in American stores until three years after the murders. Buzz demands one more time that Gene name his accomplice, threatening that if he refuses, he will be turned over to the DA to face trial in the murders. With Buzz continuing to insist on getting a name, Gene asks if he will be allowed to return to Kern if he gives them a name. Provenza promises that if they get an arrest, Gene agrees to testify against his accomplice and he makes a statement of facts they can work that out. Finally, Gene names Bill Jones or Billy as Gene calls him as his accomplice. However, Gene claims not to know where Bill can be found and that they only met up for the robberies and he never saw Bill again after he freaked out after the murders and that he knows nothing about Bill's past. Buzz decides to hold Gene in isolation until they can find Bill and he confirms Gene's story. Once Buzz leaves, Gene asks what Provenza what Buzz's problem is only to learn that Buzz is the son and nephew of the men he robbed and helped kill to Gene's dismay. Through digging into possible places where Gene and Bill could've met, Buzz manages to find Bill in the LAPD Library of Annuals, depicting Bill as a junior in high school while Gene was a senior. Buzz is left disturbed by Gene's attempts to protect Bill, making him wonder if Bill has led a crime-free life and Gene has been trying to protect that. After identifying the correct Bill Jones with the help of Rusty Beck, Buzz arrests Bill who confesses. Both Gene and Bill plead guilty and confess in open court. In exchange for making a statement against Bill, Gene is given a second life sentence on top of the one that he is already serving which Gene will serve out in Kern while Bill got sentence of life without parole in a prison near his family. Though Gene and Bill were both eligible for the death penalty for the double murder, it would've required a trial and none of the Watson family wanted an execution for Jay and Steven's killers. Trivia *Due to being part of the armed robbery that killed Jay and Steven Watson, Gene is as culpable for their murders as Bill Jones, a crime known as felony murder. This is noted by Buzz Watson in The Long Shadow, Part 10 when he discusses Gene's culpability with Rusty Beck and their audience. *Aside from his role in the robbery and murder, Gene's criminal record is shown to be truancy, shoplifting, burglary, car theft, armed robbery and attempted murder. As he had three strikes, which is three felony convictions in California law, Gene got an automatic life sentence for his last conviction. *Gene and Bill's exact reasons for robbing the ATM are never revealed. At one point, its suggested that they had a drug addiction due to the murders happening in the middle of the Crack Epidemic and this caused the robbery, but this is never confirmed. *Gene's exact age at the time of the robbery and murders is never stated. However, he and Bill Jones are mentioned to have been very young at the time and Buzz identified Bill through his connection to Gene in high school. However, whether or not they were both still in high school at the time is not mentioned. Jennifer Edwards also states that she was twenty when she last saw Gene. *Gene's efforts to protect Bill Jones' identity suggest that he knows about Bill leaving the criminal lifestyle and wanted to keep him safe from prosecution to protect his normal life. Appearances ''Major Crimes'' Season 5 # (ATM security video) # # ''Identity'' #The Long Shadow, Part 3 (ATM security video) Category:Characters Category:Major Crimes Category:MC Season 5 Category:Armed Robbers Category:Murderers